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The startup growth hubMon, 30 Mar 2015 10:07:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5Indian startup ecosystem coming of agehttp://91springboard.com/blog/indian-startup-ecosystem-coming-age/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=indian-startup-ecosystem-coming-age
http://91springboard.com/blog/indian-startup-ecosystem-coming-age/#commentsSun, 15 Mar 2015 15:55:37 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=1627For the evolution of the startup ecosystem in India, it is imperative that the top-down flow of funds starts too. In US, one hears of many top dollar acquisitions. This lets the money flow through the whole chain – Investors make money and invest more, employees make ESOP money and start on their own, and

]]>For the evolution of the startup ecosystem in India, it is imperative that the top-down flow of funds starts too. In US, one hears of many top dollar acquisitions. This lets the money flow through the whole chain – Investors make money and invest more, employees make ESOP money and start on their own, and entrepreneurs become serial entrepreneur.

For this, you need enough companies with money on their balance sheets…allowing them to pay for acquisitions. Also, you need money flowing back through the investment life cycle.

We are seeing some action on this front already. This, and more indicators tell us that the Indian Startup Ecosystem is coming of age now and next you can expect it to really grow multifold from here in the next 3-4 years.

Improved Nutrition:

Only 22% of startups who raised an angel round in 2013 managed to raise Series A. This led to a phase where soul searching was common among the accelerators to identify startups with more viability. Laws of physics apply here as well, ‘more the initial velocity, more you stand to gain from the acceleration process.’

Ecosystem enablers viz funding platforms, accelerators etc have begun to move on from the facilitator stage, to getting a lot more active on the hottest ideas. They have increasingly started providing more moneys too. This will decrease the number of steps involved for the startup to scale. The duration for a startup to mature into a company bankable by VCs is thus reducing drastically.

Demand for Increased competence:

As per Signal Hills’ India technology product M&A report, the average size of an M&A deal in India is $11 million, which is a small fraction of the $100 million that an Israeli M&A deal amounts to on average, or the $147 million average deal size of a Silicon Valley exit. These are numbers during the period from 2010 to 2013. Though matching their Israeli counterparts is still not in immediate sight, we are catching up in an accelerated fashion. In the last 6 months, Indian tech startups were lauded for their potential when Yahoo acquired Bookpad and Facebook roped in LittleEyeLabs. These are two big moves in the Indian startup space, and even this has become old news already. Snapdeal and Flipkart are doing big acquisitions as you read this article.

Startup cultures with a Vision:

While hiring, startups offer ESOPs , like Zomato, Housing.com, Myntra, Commonfloor etc. have done. While Indian startup space has not truly seen the value of ESOPs yet (at least not enough to make a dent), there are more who are willing to take the plunge through the instrument. Acceptance of the ESOPs goes to show that Indians are beginning to understand the value, as many in Silicon Valley have seen. Therecruits are attracted by vision of the company, and not just the job profile or compensation. Thus, more talented individuals are flocking towards creating value through such enterprises, who plan to go big.

With quite some bigger startups which may be eyeing the next big step, IPO listing in NASDAQ, more ESOP millionaires will be created.

Rise in Local backing:

The fact remains, that most of the hot startups today in India are backed by funds from foreign VCs. However, in the future Major players of India Inc like Mahindra, Airtel, Wipro, Infosys etc. are expected to do more than just screening startups for investment. They are open to partner, and at a later stage acquire the new ventures to not miss out on new business opportunities, which are in sync with their current operations. Similarly, Tech companies are after startups in Big Data and Business intelligence, and Retail giants are after startups like BabyOye and other rising e-commerce ventures after the success of Flipkart, Snapdeal.

It is clear that the start-up ecosystem is dynamically changing everyday in India, and becoming more matured with the players evolving in their respective roles. The Indian startups seem to be coming of age.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/indian-startup-ecosystem-coming-age/feed/0The Ronco Principle in Indiahttp://91springboard.com/blog/ronco-principle-india/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ronco-principle-india
http://91springboard.com/blog/ronco-principle-india/#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 12:41:27 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=1510Paul Graham’s essay Mean People Fail followed by the more recent Ronco Principle, in which he expands on the topic, has caused much hand wringing and teeth gnashing in startup circles. While I generally endorse the sentiment (the high incidence of assholes cannot be denied), I think the trend is more important than the current

]]>Paul Graham’s essay Mean People Fail followed by the more recent Ronco Principle, in which he expands on the topic, has caused much hand wringing and teeth gnashing in startup circles. While I generally endorse the sentiment (the high incidence of assholes cannot be denied), I think the trend is more important than the current state.

In other words, the important sentence is not this one:

Though plenty of investors are jerks, there is a clear trend among them: the most successful investors are also the most upstanding.

but this:

In a sufficiently connected and unpredictable world, you can’t seem good without being good.

The penalties for not being good haven’t existed in India until very recently. But both these factors are clearly and demonstrably in play now, even if the penalties aren’t as harsh as in the valley. We don’t have bigger and better assholes in 2015, in fact investor behaviour seems to have improved markedly in the last 2-3 years (fine I’m basing this on stories of questionable veracity from the 2000s, but whatever).

Going back to the two influences PG mentioned.

Connectedness: There are more startups, more meet ups, more coworking spaces, more coffee shops, more accelerators, and more messaging apps now. Even the greenest entrepreneurs quickly meet other founders and get a lay of the land within a couple of months of getting on the fundraising treadmill. Smart investors now know that there are enough people (and bottles of Old Monk) in the ecosystem now for stories to spread. Public opinion already has broad consensus around a few investors and investor groups. The ones with good reputations are much sought after. The ones with more ‘questionable’ reputations don’t see the good deals until everyone else has. Soon they won’t see them at all.

Unpredictability: I think this isn’t a major factor yet, but is becoming one. We just haven’t seen many extreme outcomes. But as the market grows and channels scale, leverage (and therefore unpredictability) is increasing. Already startups hear a lot less “This is stupid and will never work,” and a lot more “It’s a little too early for me, but keep me posted.”

The mature grown-up conclusion to draw here would be things are improving and we should be patient and celebrate the progress we are making. However, the discerning reader would have noticed that things are improving only because we bitch nonstop about the assholes to others. Bitching works! So dosts, spread the word on the good guys, rant about the rest, and remember to tell your friends.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/ronco-principle-india/feed/0Samyak – The Intern, on Impact Investinghttp://91springboard.com/blog/samyak-intern-impact-investing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=samyak-intern-impact-investing
http://91springboard.com/blog/samyak-intern-impact-investing/#commentsWed, 24 Dec 2014 10:12:57 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=1481Samyak says -> Recently “Bijli” was in news. No, I am not referring to any dance item number, but in fact to a social impact project by The Climate Group, an independent not-for-profit organisation headquartered in London, in association with the Sunsaluter, a social enterprise working on providing sustainable energy. Nowadays, we hear a lot

Recently “Bijli” was in news. No, I am not referring to any dance item number, but in fact to a social impact project by The Climate Group, an independent not-for-profit organisation headquartered in London, in association with the Sunsaluter, a social enterprise working on providing sustainable energy. Nowadays, we hear a lot about social enterprises, a sector where attention from impact investors and donors has begun to crescendo.

India is witnessing a rapid change in the Impact ecosystem. We are currently suffused with a variety of business ideas that propose wide impact, as the financial ecosystem of startups is changing. Increasing number of impact investors, institutions and organizations are coming forward to support these social enterprises in multiple ways. The for-profit social enterprises are taking the center stage, as they appeal to both the impact investors and foundations alike. People are calling this the gold rush of impact investing comparing it to the ‘Tech Gold Rush of 2000’. This may seem far-fetched, but it holds an element of truth to it.

Many investors have shown their reservations about the social enterprises, stating that although they have ideas and innovations but they lack “investment readiness”. This remains a critical challenge to the growing impact investing industry. This creates a financing gap in the impact startup ecosystem, leading to a deadlock. The investors believe that although the enterprises are lucrative, they lack industry infrastructure and refined business models. The investors do not wish to invest in such enterprises. In this regard, debt funding is an elusive dream to the social enterprises ecosystem.

An extensive study of India’s Social Enterprise Landscape was conducted by Intellecap in the recent past. It was identified that these enterprises were facing hindrances to sustainability and scale. Steady state enterprises are not able to secure capital they need to scale. Here is an extract from the study: “While raising seed capital is an immense challenge that most enterprises face early in their development, enterprises who find themselves stuck in the steady state have even greater difficulty securing capital than their early-stage counterparts. Steady state enterprises provide the same responses as enterprises at other stages to why they have encountered these funding restraints. They cannot meet equity investors’ revenue requirements or the business model needs further refinement.” The problems that growing social enterprises face are thus apparent.

In February 2014, a speed dating session was organized along with GIZ (International Enterprise of German Government) during Sankalp. Sankalp Forum is an enabling platform that helps social enterprises find investors, mentors and scale. The session saw 9 Lenders/Banks interact with 35+ enterprises from a wide variety of sectors and stages. Hurdles came into view and PRAISE was conceptualized as an afterthought to tackle these issues. SIDBI, GIZ and 91springboard along with a group of experts and investors have come together to help make the enterprise “investment ready” on fronts other than business alone through the PRAISE Program (find out more on PRAISE here).

I believe there is a lot of scope in developing the impact ecosystem in the country today, through the active efforts of such institutions, and truly make it the “Gold Rush of Impact Investing.”

———————–

This is a blog article by Samyak Jain, who is from IIT Kanpur and is interning with us at 91springboard.

Is there any difference between angel funding, seed investment and incubation?

Quite some,1. Angel Funding

Mostly experienced individuals investing in personal capacities. This might by alone or in a syndicate (more often). Typical size of investment can be anywhere from $10k to $1mn. Sweet spots are $100k-400k. They tend to not care so much about control and would love to help whenever they could.

2. Seed Funding

Techinically, its a word given to first round of investment. That said, practically, people have started using it as a term for a formal pre-series A round. This could be through angels or VCs putting in a small check (compared to their typical size). Typically its a sub $2mn round.
I guess the way I look at it….if a proper due diligence is done, people involved are professional investors, and its a formal process, I would call it a seed round.
On the other hand….in an Angel round, the angel might have just talked to you on the phone and sent a check the next day.

That said, if you are a founder, dont let this bother you. Fundamentally money is money; and support is support. Figure out how much of what you need and who can provide it to you better. And dont worry about what name you give it.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/difference-angel-funding-seed-investment-incubation/feed/0How to effectively Design the First Prototype for an Online Startup?http://91springboard.com/blog/effectively-design-first-prototype-online-startup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=effectively-design-first-prototype-online-startup
http://91springboard.com/blog/effectively-design-first-prototype-online-startup/#commentsSat, 04 Oct 2014 11:37:32 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=1322- Guest post by Cristian from Brazil Once the idea of our project is defined, it’s the moment when the implementation process begins. A lot of people underestimate this stage thinking the idea is the most important. However, the difference between a successful entrepreneurship and one that fails is always based on the quality of its

Once the idea of our project is defined, it’s the moment when the implementation process begins.

A lot of people underestimate this stage thinking the idea is the most important. However, the difference between a successful entrepreneurship and one that fails is always based on the quality of its implementation. Bill Gates used to say: “I’ll give a dollar for a brilliant idea but I would invest several millions for just a good implementation.”

I would like to share with you in the following items in this article what we have learned during these 8 years of online entrepreneurship, especially what we have learned based on mistakes and errors when implementing a new project from scratch.

First and most frequent mistake

There’s a mistake we made as inexperienced entrepreneurs that I always point out to the rest: NOT valuing the power of simplicity.

Developing our online prototype, that is to say, our entrepreneurship in the Internet, our website, requires a lot of time and dedication. Under no point of view this means that we should dedicate this time to adding all the factors to our website that we think are necessary for the user to understand our job.

On the contrary, that time must be used to understand what we offer and how we can deliver it to the user with the greatest simplicity and tidiness possible.

After months or years of working on our start-up, when it’s time to take it to the client, we will probably want to respond to how it works, what benefits it offers, what its cost is, etc.

Let’s see a concrete example in order to understand this point more easily. Let’s compare two online entrepreneurships dedicated to the world of tourism that are already established.

The first one is Despegar.com for Latin America, where it can be observed that when new clients access the site they don’t know exactly what to do to use the tool (we have the searcher, payment methods, favorite destinations, hotels, flights, etc. in one single place):

The second example is KAYAK, another online tourism company that, unlike the previous one, successfully emphasizes simplicity.

When we have an entrepreneurship, the truth is that the clients visiting our online business venture are probably doing it for the first time. This means that, on average, we don’t have more than 5 seconds to show them what we can offer.

If our web project lacks simplicity and we want to demonstrate a thousand things at the same time, most surely clients will feel flooded with information, won’t understand it and will end up leaving our project.

Achieving a state of pure and clear simplicity is much harder and requires maturity of the founders and knowledge of the client. Being able to transmit what we do in one single sentence is much harder than communicating it in 2 or 3 paragraphs that in the end, nobody will read.

DropBox is an example of simplicity in which 3 words and a drawing successfully transmit its service and that’s what we should look for our online prototype:

Opening communication channels.

Another item to have into account which is also important is to understand that as an entrepreneurship, we won’t have millions of users overnight.

At first, just a few will visit our business venture. This is when we have the opportunity, and we must take advantage of it, to establish a direct communication with our first users, known as “early adopters.” They are the key for our future success. In our entrepreneurship we use two tools to communicate directly with the clients in real time when they are precisely in our online business venture.

The first one is a chat room that pops outs to the client when they are navigating. There are several options; the one that gave us best results was Olark.

This one allows having a dialogue with the client, but most importantly, being able to understand what the client doesn’t understand, what they need in that precise moment, how they got to our website, and each of the doubts that only a user can answer to improve our entrepreneurship.

On the other hand, we also offer a direct line of telephone contact in case the client, instead of chatting, wants to make a phone call to make enquiries and clear some doubts, and even more important: make reviews in order to improve. Until now, we have used two alternatives; the best one was Grasshopper that allows having a virtual office with several extensions (systems, administration, accounting, legal, etc.)

As founders of a start-up, we mustn’t underestimate the direct contact with the client. They are the ones who have every answer we need to grow and improve. No one knows better about what we need to program than our own users. Taking the time to interact and listen to them is the best investment we can make.

Investing in a designer

There’s another aspect I would like to highlight when implementing the first prototype of our entrepreneurship: although as founders we aim at saving on anything possible (offices, food, trips, etc.), it’s not a good idea trying to save on the design.

There are several reasons that justify this. The first and most important one is that the online design is the letter of introduction on the eyes of the potential client. An Internet user based on “look and feel” as it’s currently known can define in seconds if he is confident in or feels secure about our project. It’s as if in the offline world we had a dirty or even messy place that needs painting.

From my own experience, something in our favor is that hiring a designer is getting cheaper every time. Five years ago it was an important investment; today is much more accessible not only on the economic level, but also because of the fact that we are able to find one that offers quality since there’s much more supply in the market.

To conclude: a good design generates confidence in the user, it’s not too expensive and it’s essential to successfully improve our final conversion. Investing in a designer that transmits simplicity and clear means of communication for the client is vital.

Automatically adapting

It’s not just about generating clients through a desktop computer, but we also need to think about mobile devices and tablets. This means that, our design must be self-adaptable as from day one based on the user’s screen size. This is one more reason for which working on simplicity (as we discussed in the first item) is essential. If we want to know if the website of our entrepreneurship is clear enough, we must try to interact with it through the navigator of a cellphone.

Today, all these items combined -not separately- are the key to the design of the first online prototype for our entrepreneurship.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Article is a guest post written by Cristian Rennella, Engineer from the Catholic University of Córdoba, co-founder of CotarSeguroAuto focused on the comparison and quotation of online services in Brazil. Since he is from Latin America, you will see that most of his examples are from there.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/effectively-design-first-prototype-online-startup/feed/0Another set of testimonials – Benefits of Coworkinghttp://91springboard.com/blog/benefits-of-coworking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=benefits-of-coworking
http://91springboard.com/blog/benefits-of-coworking/#commentsSun, 20 Jul 2014 07:14:49 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=848Jogesh Grover (Retasaan) As an entrepreneur, your mindset is fixed at delivering on your concept. In business, however, there are a lot of areas where you need assistance and you need that helping hand. 91 springboard has delivered on that missing quotient, very efficiently, by making the right people available and making the network of

As an entrepreneur, your mindset is fixed at delivering on your concept. In business, however, there are a lot of areas where you need assistance and you need that helping hand. 91 springboard has delivered on that missing quotient, very efficiently, by making the right people available and making the network of new entrepreneurs becoming available to each other. we have now access to many more minds. creature comforts and ambiance, assists you in working and the prevailing enthusiasm gets you to strive harder. we have benefited immensely from 91 springboard and, in my opinion, it is a great incubation center to enable people to grow their concepts.

From working from home and coffee shops for close to 3 years, moving to 91springboard opened a whole new world of learning, opportunities and connections for me. The place is always buzzing and is a great environment to work in – and there’s always something to learn from the 91springboard team, the fellow co-workers and everyone around. The knowledge sharing and the interactions between people at 91springboard make this a pretty kickass community. I strongly recommend giving the place a visit (and a possible check-in) if you’re a startup or a startup-friendly organisation!

I have been a part of 91springboard since day 1, the best part about the space is the co-working environment. You get a lot of support & experience around you, this place is a mix of young & experienced professionals which always helps you during your discussion & other meets.

Also the 24/7 working atmosphere provides a lot of mental peace & a sleeping place when you are out partying late and you know your house doors won’t open for you

Overall a rich experience and freedom from the old & monotonous working culture.

After spending 18 months at various office spaces in Delhi/NCR, we finally moved to 91springboards in April this year. On the very first glance I felt that 91springboard seems to have it all. Great environment and people, good interiors, nice chairs, wi-fi, conference rooms, tea and coffee, lounge, cafeteria and even yoga classes. Not to mention the events and mixers which 91springboard keeps organizing. You guys are doing a great job bringing the entire startup community, mentors and investors in NCR together.

The co-working space by 91Springboard has been very beneficial for our business. With all the requirements taken care of, we can devote our time to where it matters the most. We love the culture of this place, especially the events and the parties, it takes away the stress. Nice place, Great people!

Manan Vohra (Uberster)

It’s an amazing space where I can share my ideas with like-minded individuals and tackle the challenges I face on my journey as an entrepreneur.91sprinboard is the place to be when you have a huge workload, but need occasional breaks and interaction with other entrepreneurs. The team here is simply superb, ready to help whenever you need it. Would recommend to any serious entrepreneur young or old, looking to make it big!

“Fantastic! I have been loving my time at 91springboard. Infrastructure is awesome, but more importantly the place provides an indispensable environment for early stage entrepreneurs – from regular interactions with other founders to a rich calendar of events providing opportunities to interact with investors, mentors and potential co-founders.

91Springboard is the best thing that has happened to me since my return to India. A great concept! You get to focus on your work, network with with brilliant people and have access to conference rooms for meetings, all in a professional, nicely appointed space. The network hub, close knit community at 91springboard makes an ideal ecosystem that any aspiring entrepreneur would want to have in Delhi area. I highly recommend it to any entrepreneur especially the ones who have skepticism about the Delhi region.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/benefits-of-coworking/feed/0Agri Innovations from the Agri Biz Idol Camphttp://91springboard.com/blog/agri-business-innovations-biz-idol-camp/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=agri-business-innovations-biz-idol-camp
http://91springboard.com/blog/agri-business-innovations-biz-idol-camp/#commentsSat, 24 May 2014 09:42:28 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=989I was lucky to be invited by Dr DS Pandey and Karuppanchetty (fondly called KC) to judge the Agri Biz Idol Camp last Sunday. The Agri-Biz Idol Camps aim to identify, support and encourage young entrepreneurs with high potential in business start-ups in agriculture. The program focuses on youth in the age bracket of 18-30…which I

]]>I was lucky to be invited by Dr DS Pandey and Karuppanchetty (fondly called KC) to judge the Agri Biz Idol Camp last Sunday.

Agri Biz Idol Judging along with Raghunandan of ISBA, Subhadeep of Omnivore Partners and Bengali Babu ji of ICAR

The Agri-Biz Idol Camps aim to identify, support and encourage young entrepreneurs with high potential in business start-ups in agriculture. The program focuses on youth in the age bracket of 18-30…which I am specially excited about because a lot of people keep complaining how youth is moving away from the Agri sector.

This was organised by National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) at the beautiful NASC Complex on 18th May and the participants were the winning entries of five Agri-Biz Idol camps conducted at five locations at Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore, Anand & Delhi respectively.

While a few of the projects were “me too”…few of them were genuinely ossum. Projects like…

Water Hyacinth Removal Machine

Water Hyacinth is a big problem across India. It just kills the lakes and the life in it. The interesting part was that it was an amazing team with a mix of a Local Entrepreneur, who understood the issues & developed the technology + a well educated foreign returned Indian who understood business & was passionate about the topic.

HydropoNeo Verti Farms

Students working hard to create vertical farms to improve productivity & transform agriculture in Jaipur.

FishPaneer

Deboned & washed fish meat processed into something with the texture & feel of Paneer. Even used to make same subzis as what you would make with Paneer. And no, its not just a concept. They came with a product properly packed for selling right there. Nice!

Producer’s Collective

A nice team with a combination of women farmers & a bunch of city women trying to work towards getting organic vegetables directly from farms to households in Mumbai & Pune.

Sunsaar

A hardware device measuring solar position accurately – both Azimuth & Altitude. Not based on GPS etc. Simply measuring Sun’s position using how the rays fall.

Creating a large business consisting of quite a few small business based on Food Processing.

Stealth Mode Startup

A startup focusing on using R&D + Business combo for Agri space to create tech products useful for Agriculture in India. Their first product is a Cotton Picking Device which will solve a big problem as labor is hard to find during picking season and end up becoming significant cost for the farmer.

Millets Breakfast

A startup focusing on creating healthy breakfast options using Millets.

Liquid vegetable wash for preserving

A liquid solution which is mixed with water and used to wash vegetables post harvesting. This keeps the vegetables fresher for almost double their life otherwise. They got along potatoes & tomatoes which were 3-4 weeks old and no doubt, they looked almost freshly plucked.

As I said, a few of these we probably me-too products/services. But that said, the passion of the entrepreneurs was contagious and I wish all of them the best.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/agri-business-innovations-biz-idol-camp/feed/0Quick tips to keep in mind while setting up your meetings when visiting Valley/UShttp://91springboard.com/blog/quick-tips-keep-mind-setting-up-your-meetings-visiting-valleyus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quick-tips-keep-mind-setting-up-your-meetings-visiting-valleyus
http://91springboard.com/blog/quick-tips-keep-mind-setting-up-your-meetings-visiting-valleyus/#commentsSat, 03 May 2014 18:03:10 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=961A couple of startups we know well are going to TiECon on 16-17th May in Santa Clara. Like any sensible entrepreneur, they are trying to make most of their visit and are setting up meetings there. The first time visitors may find the following tips useful. They are pretty logical – so most of you

]]>A couple of startups we know well are going to TiECon on 16-17th May in Santa Clara. Like any sensible entrepreneur, they are trying to make most of their visit and are setting up meetings there. The first time visitors may find the following tips useful. They are pretty logical – so most of you might have been keeping these in mind already. Still, no harm going through them once more.

First figure out who all are your top priorities to meet while you are there. These could be Potential Customers, Partners / Key Potential Tie-ups, Investors, etc. Tools that will be handy for this: Google, Linkedin, People visible in conferences for your specific domain.

Create specific email that you could send to someone requesting for intro & that he/she can effectively copy paste while introducing you. Eg – with random placeholder data.

Hi Billoo-Mentor,

As we had discussed, I will be in Valley from 10th May to 18th May. I am looking to meet some potential customers there. Thanks for offering to connect me to Bill Gates from Microsoft. I have composed the below email that you could use while introducing. Please feel free to edit. Thanks a lot for your support.

Rgds,

Raju-Entrepreneur

————————

Hi Bill,

Trust all is well.

I wanted to quickly introduce you to Raju who is the founder of Almost-Successfull Pvt Ltd (www.almostsuccessfulpvtltd.com) – one of the startups I have been mentoring closely. They help businesses improve their productivity by helping businesses plan drinking games involving actual business outputs.

Raju is looking to expand his business to US and is in valley from 10th to 18th for TieCon. I was wondering if you could spare some time to meet him & guide him on the same.

Thanks for the help,

Cheers,

Billoo-Mentor

Reach out to your mentors / advisors / linkedin-common-links and see if they are connected to people you wish to reach out to.

They will (hopefully) offer to introduce you to many people. Categorise those into the following and act as per below:

Directly Relevant People: Of-course…Set these up. Fill up your calendar with these. This is what you are there for.

Nice guys who are active in ecosystem: Set, say, only 2-3 of these up. Also, ensure you keep extra days in your calendar. The nice guys will end up pointing you to towards many directly relevant people too. Ensure you have enough extra days to cover those up too.

Rest: This includes the other nice guys not covered above. Just take the contacts for these people along with you. If you still have time, then shoot them an email marking your mentor in CC, apologize for the last minute request and meet them then.

Basically, avoid the situation where someone introduces you and you are not able to do the meeting.

Also, people everywhere are helpful; And before you fly out from India – you will feel that you don’t know what you will be doing for 10 days there – rest assured, if you are an entrepreneur you will be able to figure it out quite quickly within the first few days. Keep extra time in hand for this.

Do spend some time in the cafes. Do go for a trek in the weekend. Do attend some startup events / meetups / demos. Leave some time & create avenues for potential serendipity too. If it happens, great. If not, you will have a good time for sure. :-)

Pranay speaking at Chicago Booth Summit

Summit organised by Booth School in Chicago.

Pics from my last trip where I had done the mistakes and figured out these easy tricks.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/quick-tips-keep-mind-setting-up-your-meetings-visiting-valleyus/feed/1Why Indian startups will miss Mukund Mohan?http://91springboard.com/blog/why-indian-startups-will-miss-mukund-mohan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-indian-startups-will-miss-mukund-mohan
http://91springboard.com/blog/why-indian-startups-will-miss-mukund-mohan/#commentsSun, 27 Apr 2014 16:13:53 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=947I was fortunate to have an opportunity to spend quite some one-on-one time with Mukund Mohan over last 3 years. He has been one of the most amazing people to happen to the startup ecosystem. We specifically love him because (among other things): 1. He was probably the first investor to be willing to invest

]]>I was fortunate to have an opportunity to spend quite some one-on-one time with Mukund Mohan over last 3 years. He has been one of the most amazing people to happen to the startup ecosystem.

@ IIM Udaipur

We specifically love him because (among other things):

1. He was probably the first investor to be willing to invest in Convertible Notes / Debt. Not only was he willing, he forced other investors to do the same if they wanted to be a part of the deals he was investing in. Read this if you wanna know why convertible note is good for startups.

2. He made ‘value-adding’ compulsory for investors. If a startup is stuck with a problem, and the investor (…or at least, the lead investor), is not keeping awake because of it, then shame-shame investorji. This article in Business Today also talks about his attitude on this.

3. He genuinely treated founders as a customer. I remember when he was looking to hire someone and he asked for my recommendations…when I asked him what kind of person he was looking for…he did not say ‘should know how to pick startups‘ and other such things. His simple criteria was “should be an entrepreneur because he will have empathy for entrepreneurs“.

4. His blog is a good resource for some information not easily available for entrepreneurs otherwise. For instance – here are some useful documents all startups require.

We congratulate you & wish you the best for the global role Mukund. And Mukund – we hope Indian startups & entrepreneurship ecosystem will still occupy the majority of your mind & time even when you are in US. We hope we don’t need to miss you.

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Disclaimer: Microsoft Ventures is one of the sponsors & supporters of 91springboard. That said, they aren’t paying us for this. This is straight from the heart with the hope that this will inspire more Mukunds to come up.

]]>http://91springboard.com/blog/why-indian-startups-will-miss-mukund-mohan/feed/0The Gold Rush of Impact Investing – Just yet?http://91springboard.com/blog/impact-investing-in-india/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=impact-investing-in-india
http://91springboard.com/blog/impact-investing-in-india/#commentsTue, 22 Apr 2014 14:06:10 +0000http://91springboard.com/?p=937It is amazing to note how many times we are hearing about “Social Enterprises”, “Impact Investments” …nowadays. There is, or at least seems to be, a lot of buzz around money chasing Impact Startups. In fact, an article on VCCricle here talks of how the money has gone from $4bn to $12bn in just recent time.

]]>It is amazing to note how many times we are hearing about “Social Enterprises”, “Impact Investments” …nowadays. There is, or at least seems to be, a lot of buzz around money chasing Impact Startups. In fact, an article on VCCricle here talks of how the money has gone from $4bn to $12bn in just recent time.

Is this like the ‘Tech Gold Rush of 2000’, where regular companies just created their websites and became “tech companies”?

We are excited about this and believe it will have a multiplier impact on the entire start-up ecosystem.

Some specific points we thought are exciting:

The availability of funds will help potential social entrepreneurs sitting on the fence, decide easily. We have met great entrepreneurs – well educated, good experience, big vision who will jump into the fray to solve real problems of the world.

There is a scare of the a-la-‘Tech Gold Rush of 2000’, where regular companies just created their websites and became “tech companies”. Likewise, we will see a lot of companies trying to sneak into the “Impact” definition to benefit from the gold rush. Frankly, we aren’t complaining a lot for this. As long as investors carry on their due diligence & invest on the merit of business & are not losing money – at least it will be another good business supported. Impact ho jayega.

Definitions of ‘Impact’ will get wider. Everyone who is in this space has probably sat through at least 5 debates on “what is Impact”? The jury is still sitting on this. Rather, no one knows who the jury is. And thus, everyone has their own definition. There have been attempts by bodies like GIIN and the upcoming the Impact Investor Council; but there is no consensus yet. Again, we aren’t complaining. We are glad that people get to have their own definition and work as they please. That said, with more money chasing the startups – the better startups that conform to the stricter definitions will get costlier. And then, the definition will start getting looser at the peripheries. For eg.

A lot of ecosystem parts will fall in place too. More people like Intelecap and Ennovent supporting fund raising & consulting social enterprises. More people helping with the market reach. More debt. More govt support.

Challenge for most investors is the balance between impact and fair market returns. The problem is that most investors use impact as the screening criteria and do not usually give due weightage like they would give to the financials of the business in their evaluation. If the company is profit focused – IPOs etc can be potential exits. But, if they do give weightage to impact criterias – and even if company grows on impact – who will drive the eventual exit? It is not like there are companies acquiring for Impact anyways. We do have more thoughts on this subject & have captured them in our blog here.

On NGOs…

NGO decline will be there, or rather NGOs will end up focusing only on non-revenue based activities. Any NGO which is into generating revenues will start moving towards being a social enterprise. Or, they will separate the social enterprise part from the pure social support part and park them in two separate entities. The pure social part will run based on donor funding.

Similarly, the social enterprises, as they run now…will spin off their non-profitable ecosystem development activities into a separate NGO and try to dip into donor money for those components. The donors can judge it in two ways – (a) a loss centre to do the dirty work for a profitable business that others are benefiting from. (b) an efficient run NGO working hand in hand with a sustainable business.

Lets see how this evolves.

Meanwhile, this report by GIZ is a good reference for impact based startups too. Gives a nice list of current landscape, sources of funding, etc.

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For their inputs, I specially thank Digbijoy Shukla who is with Ennovent & who I like to call The Social Guy in Delhi; and Jamuna Verghese who is Advisor for Inclusive Markets at PwC. Also, for the records – I must let you know that they did disagree with us on a few points above. So, we should point out that you should not feel that these are necessarily their viewpoints too and you are not allowed to pester them later assuming so.

Also, both of them did warn me that there is no conclusion in this article & I am sure it bothers you too. We take this freedom as we continue to think that the blog is a way for us to park our random thoughts. Thanks for bearing with us.